1858.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Societi/. 373 



Education in China prepared by Mr. Alabaster from information 

 communicated by Commissioner Yeh. 



2. From Mr. Hall a paper on Professor Wilson's 3d edition 

 of the Sanscrit Dictionary. 



3. From Captain Tenant, Engineers. A reply to Archdeacon 

 Pratt's recent paper on the Indian meridional arc. 



4. From Major H. L. Thuillier the following extract from a 

 letter from Captain Tenant relating to the Comet. 



" As the comet now rapidly leaving us has been generally iden- 

 tified with the one Mr. Hind expected, (which it is not,) and has in 

 consequence caused an unusual interest to be taken in it, perhaps the 

 elements of its orbit will be interesting to some of your Calcutta 

 friends. 



Perihelion passage, Sept. 28th, 16h. 16m. 5. 

 Longitude of perihelion, 16* 36' 4." 

 Do. Ascending node, 168* 25' 11/' 

 Inclination, 6G' 20' 35." 



Perihelion distance, 0.5 752,358. 



Motion retrograde. 



These differ totally from those of Mr. Hind's expected Comet, 

 that of 1556. 



I was unable to get any observations till the 5th October, and 

 have only just got enough to get this orbit, but I believe this orbit 

 will be very fairly close. I have seen no English orbit and I doubt 

 if any has yet reached India." 



The Secretary read the following extract from a note addressed 

 to him by Archdeacon Pratt on the same subject. 



" This comet is the same as that seen by Dr. Donati at Florence 

 in June last. Mr. Hind has published one or two letters in the 

 Times giving the results of his observations upon it. It is not, as 

 was at first hoped, the 1556 or Charles Vth comet, which may yet- 

 come. From 1858 to 1861 is the range which Mr. Hind has 

 given it. , 



liegarding this, or Donati's comet, Mr. Hind shews, in his letter 

 dated September 13th, that on the 5th and 6th of October it would 

 be near Arcturus — which you may remember we observed — and 

 that it would pass its descending node near Venus — which also we 



3 c 



